Ongoing research project on environmentally friendly choices and behavior of residents
A research project is currently underway at KTH Live-In Lab, by Agnieszka Zajelska Jonsson, researcher at KTH in building and real estate economics. The project entitled Customer and housing environment-friendly choices and behavior in the housing market concerns, inter alia, the question of whether the behavior of residents in so-called environmentally friendly buildings changes when the conditions are right to be able to live energy efficiently - and if so, how?
"The transition to a sustainable future depends largely on human behavioral change and how widespread behavioral change is. Unfortunately, behavior is not easy to influence. It often happens that we have access to information and knowledge about what we are willing to change, but when we take a decision, we often make the choice for what we are comfortable with or what we are used to doing." says Agnieszka.
She also believes that an important but complex concept is the difference between housing values and knowledge, and the behavior is linked to this because it has a major impact on the development of the sustainable housing market, the change in economy, society, climate and the ability to achieve environmental goals.
"Many studies have been made assuming that information can change environmental attitudes and lead to pro-environmental behavior. This strategy has proved insufficient to ensure a sustainable choice or a long-term change in behavior." says Agnieszka.
The purpose of the research is to identify and understand the factors that influence the customers' pro-environmental decisions as well as the behaviors that develop in the housing market. The intention is to use behavioral economics and environmental psychology to understand and explain the occurrence of the gap in behavior. Do those who move into sustainable housing consider that they have already taken their strain or raised further interests in living a sustainable life when the right conditions exist? Is the involvement big at first but cools after a while - or do the habits of the people change successively to make more environmentally sustainable decisions?
In order to answer these questions, questionnaire studies will be conducted, which can then be linked to the measurement data available from the test beds in the KTH Live-In Lab. The research project is expected to continue in the next 2-3 years, hopefully with further further studies.
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